Having a will is an excellent idea for every responsible citizen of Missouri. The personal and financial hassle that erupts if you don’t have one can be immense. If you die without a will in place, you will be considered to be intestate. This can open up a long and tedious court process, so it’s better to plan ahead to keep the probate process short.
Probate is likely for your estate
Far too many people are under the mistaken impression that they can avoid the process of probate by not having a will. But this is wholly untrue. The reality is that it doesn’t matter if you have a will or not. The court will still order probate to take place to distribute all of your assets.
The only real difference that takes place is that if you have a will you can have a say in how your assets are divided among your survivors. If there is no will, the decision will have to be made by a court. This will be the case whether or not you had an estate plan. Both probate and estate administration will be handled by a court.
What happens if you don’t leave a will?
If you should pass without an estate plan or will, you will be intestate. This means that you give the court power by default to decide how your estate will be handled. A set of intestacy succession laws will govern how the process is handled.
A person who creates a will is entitled to name an executor for their estate. This is the person who will oversee the process of carrying out all of your wishes with regard to your assets. If you don’t have a will, a person will have to step in and petition the court to fill this role.
While the end result may be largely the same, it will almost always take the court longer to get there if you don’t have a will. You are much better off having an official will in place to expedite the process.